Other brands and companies that cut ties to West . Side note: usually artists get between 12-15% royalty rate but Kanye was already being a huge hit so he could negotiate a higher fee. Is it fair? #kanyewest #dramaalert #grammyWanna continu. Ross Guberman [00:03:18] And so Im the president of legal writing prose, so Ive been doing workshops and consulting on all different aspects of lawyer writing and judicial writing for a couple of decades now. You should need NO ONE else to understand the business youre in. 88-Keys . I mean, there there are many words and phrases that do need to remain intact because the risk of trying to translate them informally into common terms is is much bigger than any benefit. At no point was Kanye allowed to object to a track being on the record if it achievedTop 100 chart success on any national trade publication at any time prior to when the Greatest Hits album was released. Just minutes prior, he had finished tweeting out the entirety of his Universal contract, one page at a time for a total of more than 100 tweets. You want to get in and get as much as you can is what we were told. One way to begin is by bracketing off phrases or words that you know have a substantive value. Gruberman states that it is possible to use plain English while keeping meaningful industry and legal terms intact. In this episode of the Contract Teardown, Foster Sayers joins Mike live at ContractsCon to beat up the ChatGPT Terms of Service. If you want to be on a future contract tear down. Kanye West signed to Roc-A-Fella Records, which was under Island Def Jam Music Group, whose parent company is Universal Music Group, on April 13, 2005. Now we know where the funds will come from, so its its. And Im going to share a few images. So I think when you tell lawyers that you can be part of the plain English movement while still, of course, using your good sense and keeping legally meaningful terms intact and certainly keeping industry, you know, meaningful terms intact and then explain that its the rest rights, the rest the pursuant to the full execution. We were lucky because we were careful. Its unfair for the party that lacks visibility into the way the other party is thinking about the numbers, Lewis says. Mike Whelan [00:19:16] Well, and on that, I, I sort of want to get to principles, to things that lawyers can learn from this example, which is really the purpose of this show. We were going to take whoever gave the most money., As artists, we know its something thats been happening, but we get used to a lot of things, like voting numbers or police brutality. He says the industry must holistically evaluate how to improve for any major changes to shift. Kanye West signed his co-publishing contract with music publisher EMIwho is now owned by Sony/ATVin 2003, before the completion and release of his 2004 debut album, The College Dropout. Now, with a click of a finger, your music goes wide to 7 billion people if you want it to. She argues that the relationship between the parties should dictate options, then the parties themselves should make informed choices. Mike Whelan [00:22:29] he did not listen. Its a fine line to walk: simplifying without completely changing the meaning of the terms. In September 2020, "Kanye West Record Deal" started trending. Its all made from videos. The deal was huge, man, they give you money to live off of. We have been engaged in an ongoing dialogue with Hit-Boy and all the concerned parties to address his concerns and will continue to do so until a reasonable solution is achieved.). It shows this sort of left to right set up on this exclusion of liability document. Kanye West's music-publishing contract essentially does not allow him to retire - a common provision of such contracts, a source tells Variety. Then you, Kanye, get your money. Its not always clear whats what. He ended the spree with, 'Whew that was a lot guys," and then tweeted a video of himself peeing on a Grammy award. The split can be 80/20 in the artists favor. Copyright 2023 Penske Business Media, LLC. The contract indicates that these figures would increase with each release, and Kanye West and his company would receive 20 percent of each minimum after notifying the label that the. I have a lot of free articles and a lot of these before and after is also on Twitter. A month ago, Kanye West had an emotional breakdown on Twitter. When your term ends, download it all. Addeddate 2020-09-21 23:04:27 Identifier KanyeWestContracts Identifier-ark ark:/13960/t0jt91382 Ocr And then what happens is, as you can see from his other related tweets, the sense is not just, well, I dont understand the contract. Its an interesting thing. But as the music industry comes out of its 20-year tailspin, with streaming fueling new growth, artists arent satisfied with that arrangement, and many are demanding newfound power. Leave. Welcome to Law Insiders Contract Teardown Show, where we bring smart friends like Ross Guberman over here to break down some contracts. Advances. Portals. So lets shift to the Kanye contract, and were not going to do a full breakdown of what all these documents are, because theres a lot and there are good YouTube videos out there. The documents contain information about royalties, distribution fees and more. Yet even though Kanyes deal may not make him the ideal poster child for a conversation on the fairness of recording contracts, hes sparked a high level of discussion among artists and music-business insiders on the nature of record deals and long-held standards. Whats the language that stands out to you as particularly harmful to the understanding of the parties, which is really what a contract is supposed to do, right? Its sort of a it, Ross Guberman [00:17:40] hasnt been taken. Theres theres a counseling function in addition to a drafting function that seems to be really important that lawyers didnt do here. In 2012, the label released its debut compilation album Cruel Summer.In 2015, Pusha T was appointed the president of the label . Youre going to sign the amendment. The documents . After a slight struggle trying to share the files, Kanye boasted that him revealing his old record label contracts was going to be a literal game changer. So from a record label standpoint at the moment, the split Kanye has above is in many cases flipped. Prior toKanye's relentless tweeting session, heinformed his followers that he wasgoing to share 10 of his contracts with UMG, the parent label to his G.O.O.D. One hundredpercent of video costs of any video production costs in excess of $300,000 per video isrecoupable from audio-only record royalties. The equity is the Artists. Most comprehensive library of legal defined terms on your mobile device. We didnt spend our advance on cars or jewelry, we bought a house. An advance constitutesany moneypaid, costs incurred or costs to create videos. And we have to be very careful, of course, you know, translating things like provisos like provided, however, that in dealing with Shell and the like. For that LP, there was a recording fund amounting to$2.5 million. Maybe its about time I do that.. I didnt know this was the thing, but apparently its a Twitter meme. Tell me how this is more understandable again for someone, not a 12 year old, but someone like Kanye in the decision making phase. For example, LinkedIn has made some effort to provide easy-to-understand language. In the weeks following its release, Donda surpassed a billion streams on Spotify globally. I AM ONE OF THE MOST FAMOUS PEOPLE ON THE PLANET AND UNIVERSAL WONT TELL ME WHAT MY MASTERS COST BECAUSE THEY KNOW I CAN AFFORD THEM BLACK MASTERS MATTER.". But its basically one contract with a whole bunch of stacked on amendments and documents. Advances are loans with 75% interest rates (or worse). Kanye West is seen at a Donda listening event at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on July 22, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia. Absolutely. Kanye West tweets Univeral Label Contract. Ye also had to seek written approval from the labelat least 14 days before the first recording session. Its actually gotten a lot of press. Almost no artists recoup so the system obviously doesnt work, but its tempting. Theyre not to be I mean, this is classic, completely unnecessary, archaic language you see in a lot of commercial agreements. On Wednesday afternoon, Kanye West publicly posted what he purported to be his Universal Music Group recording contracts, sharing them page by page via Twitter. Hit-Boy is an enormously talented songwriter whose relationship we value, a UMPG spokesperson said in a statement to Rolling Stone. If you are interested in being a guest on Contract Teardown, please email us at community@lawinsider.com. And, to an extent, they're not wrong. Ye. Its its unfortunately the the words and phrases that are operative to. The 200 Greatest Singers of All Time THE HOST:Mike Whelan is the author of Lawyer Forward: Finding Your Place in the Future of Law and host of the Lawyer Forward community. Artists must be dependent on no one but themselves to manage their catalog. Mike Whelan [00:16:08] in a brief. Undoubtedly, who He was given a $6 million advance for his seventh album with $3 million designated to recording costs. Not every artist has time to read the Donald Passman bookand find out what every term and clause means, and while there are great lawyers out there, too many just want their 5 percent [commission].. Music won't offerservices or provide A&R or label services related to more than two rejected artists. This is the same deal your favorite artist signed, this is their label. What do you expect a young, naive artist to do? Of that, two-thirds ($8 million) was an advance for him to keep. Were were coloring pictures for you so you understand whats happening here? Until then, Ross, I appreciate you being here. The first thing that changes about Record Deals is actually lawyers. Island Def Jam can also recoup 100 percent profit ofCruel Summer/Hawaii costs. After agreeing to the amount spent on the film, they took $1 million from Kanyes sixth album backend and then $500,000 from his seventh album's recording fund. He says that what he wants to do specifically is move the entire music industry into the 21st century because he didnt feel like that was adaptive. We didnt spend our advance on cars or jewelry, we bought a house. So lets talk a little bit. This is a tool that is available to anyone looking to implement plain language into their contracts. Looking back, I've thought many times about what makes Kanye Kanye. Ross Guberman [00:20:11] Yeah, I think part of that is really bracketing off, just as you are saying, words and phrases that a lawyer knows have substantive value. Ye says he wants his four children to own them. G.O.O.D. From that money, $4 million was allocated to recording costs. If youre part of a team, just email us if youre in house or in a law firm. According to West's court papers, he's been "laboring" for EMI since 2003, when during the recording of College Dropout he signed a "lopsided" contract with the music publisher. (Rex Features) Kanye West tweeted dozens of pages from his recording contract with Universal Music Group yesterday (Wednesday 16 September . Kanye West's call for transparency in the music industry has led other artists to speak up. 1990 Kanye's mother, Donda West, helps a then 13-year-old Kanye pay to cut his first record in a basement studio. Im Mike Whelen. XXL has taken a deep dive into Kanye's record contracts. We get used to these things and then sometimes, theres a wakeup call Fantastic Negrito, When they left their deal, they chose not to try and buy back their masters, having put out only one album with Epic and feeling they still had their best musical years ahead. Ideally, he says, artists should have legal representation working in their best interest to point out red-flag clauses: While an artist should be wary of what theyre signing rather than looking solely at the immediate paycheck, young and starry-eyed artists whove never seen so much money may not understand that yet. The way that Gruberman has identified these sections is by using his tool called BriefCatch. Wests contract could even be considered favorable among superstar contracts, with Universal heavily investing in Wests works, entertainment attorney Christiane Kinney says. Almost no artists recoup so the system obviously doesnt work, but its tempting. Using plain language isnt just a benefit to clients. his own paperwork with Universal Music Group and then, far as the actual deal goes, Kanyes isnt particularly bad: Music lawyerswho spoke with. Musician Kanye West changed all that when he went to Twitter to complain about his many contracts with the recording industry. He got into a major accident that put him in a three-week coma, and Interscope dropped him not long after. This method perhaps isnt as friendly to consumers as LinkedIns method, but its close enough to the source material and still understandable. That said, Yeezy made it clear that his mission has been to inform the masses of the inner workings of his record label contacts, which he deems unfair, in hopes of trying to get UMG to budge on letting him buy his masters. web pages Prince Vinyl Records. Theres a lot going on here. Were going to pay that to you. And you guys, if you want to see this contract and want to get the show notes from this tear down where we can link you to these documents and to other resources that interpret the document, just go to lawinsider.com/resources. He dumped them all on Twitter. Watch to see how three transactions handled alternative dispute resolution options. 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